You’ve seen them.
Handicapped parking spaces.
And there’s always this large “border” around them, of white-hashed lines filling in areas and typically making paths from the parking space to the door of the building.
Do you know what those are for? People with wheelchairs and other assistive devices to be able to maneuver. They need the room. If the van has a wheelchair ramp, those things are big and need space to unfold and descend so the person can get in and out of their van.
Do you know what those are not for?
Leaving shopping carts.
Parking your car.
And the worst offenders I see are motorcyclists (speaking as one myself) parking their bikes in them. Yeah yeah I know, you don’t want to park your bike where someone might knock it over, but now you’re parking in a way that could lead someone in a wheelchair to get run over. Park in a proper parking spot like everyone else… not in the handicapped lanes, not on the sidewalk either.
For that matter, if you’re not truly handicapped, don’t use a mirror hang tag just to get a “close in” parking spot when you’re perfectly able-bodied.
I’ve got a nephew in a wheelchair, and one of my best friends is in one too. Seeing people abuse handicapped parking spaces bugs me.
Stuff From Hsoi 
I was disappointed to find that you can’t get a handicapped parking pass for being “morally disabled”.
We’d need a lot more parking spaces in that case.
I too am disappointed when I see someone take up a handicap spot without any due reason. That said, the only time I’ve ever gotten into an altercation with a person, since I was a teenager, was over a handicap parking space. It’s not how you might think though.
I was visiting a friend who worked at Starbucks at his job one lazy Sunday afternoon. I drove up a steep hill and turned into a parking spot, hopped out of the car and went inside. Two minutes later a man comes storming into the store, “Who’s car is that outside?!” I turn and see my car parked there and I say, “It’s mine, something wrong?” “You don’t have a handicap! Why are you parked in a handicap space?!” I look out and sure enough, I had unintentionally parked in a handicap spot (when I had pulled up the steep hill and turned I had driven over the painted marking on the ground without seeing it, the sign on the wall was covered by graffiti and above eye level so as to be unnoticeable).
The gentleman launches into a tirade about parking in handicap spots and is screaming to the point of uncontrolled rage in the store. I think now is a wise time to exit the store and remove my vehicle and he follows me outside still screaming. I tried explaining it was an honest mistake, but the gentleman was so bent on giving me the riot act he wouldn’t listen. After he started moving towards me in an aggressive manner, I had to firmly tell him to back off, got into my car and drove off. He is still yelling at this point, so I called the police and had them come to talk to the man.
I learned a couple of valuable lessons that day. You CAN control a situation with dominating calls for compliance. I loudly and firmly told the man to get away from me, only then did he start to back off. I was given an avenue of escape earlier and should’ve taken it sooner than I did. Once in my car with the doors locked, I promptly drove off. Finally, a quick look can confirm if you’ve accidentally parked in the wrong spot and save you a confrontation, perhaps with somebody who has a short fuse of anger issues.
Now that whole diatribe didn’t have much to do with this post…None the less I agree wholeheartedly, don’t park in those spaces and remember they are to be respected for those that need them.
-Rob
Hey, it was a good learning experience for you, and a story worth sharing. Thanx for doing so!
Guilty here. I regularly park my bike on the striped bits between handicapped spots. However, I do ensure that a) I’m far enough forward to clear handicapped loading and b) if there’s only one handicapped spot available I’ll find another place to park.
I’ll have to re-evaluate my strategy now tho.
I do understand why motorcyclists like to park in that way. I recall one day watching someone back their truck over my friend’s motorcycle because he was in a normal spot and the truck was so big and tall they couldn’t see the bike. Down it went but thankfully minimal damage because we hauled over there quickly to get the driver to stop.
I’ve been fortunate that no one has (yet) backed over my bike.
But at least you put thought into it. I’ve seen some that park in ways that block everything.
could be worse, I watched a guy, just this afternoon, driving a car WITH A HANDICAP tag, park in the driving lane, RIGHT NEXT to the empty handicapped parking spot.
A suggestion to those who have to park their bikes (or even smaller cars!) in a standard parking spot: don’t pull all the way in! Leave your vehicle with its tail (or nose if you backed in) even with the vehicles next to you instead of pulling all the way in, makes it much easier when the next driver is scanning the row to tell there’s a vehicle parked there. Still won’t help with the idiots who don’t look, but it does give them less of an excuse.